"Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" is a 1974 song by an ad hoc group of studio musicians called Reunion, with Joey Levine (bubblegum music pioneer with "Chewy Chewy" and "Yummy Yummy Yummy" to his credit) as the lead singer. The song was written by Paul DiFranco (music) and Norman Dolph (lyrics). The lyrics are a fast patter of 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s disc jockeys, musicians, songwriters, record labels, song titles and lyrics, broken only by the chorus.
Given the various musical icons on the laundry list, the Jack the Ripper mention may be a reference to Link Wray, often called the inventor of the power chord. His 1961 instrumental called "Jack the Ripper" was also covered by The Raybeats who made an early music video to go with it.
The harmony used during the latter part of the record is based on the tune of "Soothe Me" by Sam & Dave.
It went as high as #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and reached #33 in the UK. The track was later covered by Tracey Ullman in 1984 and was featured in her album, You Broke My Heart in 17 Places.
Read more about Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me): References in Popular Culture, Name Checks
Famous quotes containing the words life, rock and/or radio:
“And all the great traditions of the Past
They saw reflected in the coming time.
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can’t even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.”
—Russell Baker (b. 1925)
“All radio is dead. Which means that these tape recordings I’m making are for the sake of future history. If any.”
—Barré Lyndon (1896–1972)